this is going to sound crazy!!!

[busymomof2]

i am going to try something tonight and i wanted to hear as much feedback as possible from anyone who has had a simular problem...i have a 3 year old and an almost 6 month old...my son goes to bed at 730- 745pm...i have been putting my daughter to bed at about 7pm consistently for about the past 3 months...she does well until about midnight then we need to go in and replace soother and also do so for remainder of the night about 12 times..then she has consistently been awake and up for good by 5am....so............. as of today, i have gotten rid of the soother...she only ever had it in the car and in bed..yes, she cried a bit, i went in every 5 minutes at naptime and soothed her and she eventually fell asleep w/o it..(she is only a 30 minute napper, unless in the car, but that is a whole other issue).  anyway, i have to put her to bed before my son for obvious reasons..he and i spend a few minutes having our important chats and cuddles in bed, which she will join when she is older...anyway, i am thinking she is going to bed too early and that is causing the constant 5am waking..most moms i've talked to with same aged babes, put them down around 9ish..
so............i am going to get her up now (after an hour of sleep) and keep her up until say 930 ish? and see if she can go through the night and then at least until 630....i hope i am not making a terrible mistake??  please post your thoughts..
tired, tired mom.

[teezee]

i definately wouldn't got that route as you may make your lo overtired. it does sometimes work for parents to put lo's to bed a bit later but personally i wouldn't go past 8:30pm as you will just create more bad habits and in the long run the later bedtime could definately cause night wakings more than now. imho i see nothing wrong with a 7pm bedtime!!  could you please post your routine?? that way i can look a bit closer at how much sleep she is getting during the day.

[busymomof2]

ha..didn't work anyway!  i did try to wake her but couldn't and didn't want to force it..so she's back in her crib and i will head to bed shortly as to be prepared for a night of wakings!
her schedule is as follows..
bath, story bed 6 to 7pm....(with big brother)..
i used to dreamfeed her at 10pm but she is taking maybe 3 oz so i have stopped..
wakes from midnight to about 4am every hour..then every 20 minutes until about 5-530 then up for good (wide awake and smiling)..
feed bottle 730 am..(maybe 6 oz)
some solids about 830 (not too interested though)
activity
nap 10ish for about 30 minutes..sometimes an hour.

bottle 1230 ( usually 4 oz but sometimes 6, she is not a big eater but a heathy weight of 17 lbs??)
activity
sleep 2:00 pm for about 30 minutes to 1 1 /2 if i go out and run errands (she sleeps well in the car)
bottle 5 530 (small amount again) then solids (small too)
very fussy from this point until bed
sometimes can get 4-5 oz into her before bed (tonight was 3 oz)

i'm am lost...i try to to compare but my son slept sooo well from 6 weeks on, but was also eating 8 oz bottles and loved solids!!

[teezee]

ok well i think you def need to extend naps and even offer a catnap for a little while to get lo caught up on sleep.  you may not be able to go anywhere for a week or so if you do want to do this as you will need to get lo down for her nap right on time. i think 2.5hrs A time in the morning is too long for a lo that age. cut it down by say a half hr or so and see if that helps her sleep better (if she is not overtired she will be able to get through sleep cycles easier - although if this has been going on for awhile - you may need to sleep train using shhing, wts, pu/pd, etc).  again in the pm, before her nap if she only sleep 30 min for her am nap she is then up for 3.5hrs. that is def way too long - my lo is almost 10mths and can barely stay awake that long.  cut that down i'd say by at least 45 min to an hr...play with it a bit and make sure lo is tired enough to sleep but i think that you could cut it by that much and be safe. again, you may need to intervene if lo has made a habit of waking often. and again, after pm nap if she only sleeps 30min then she is way too overtired without a catnap to get her through to bedtime and that would really explain many of the night wakings. remember - tracy says - good sleep begets good sleep!!

also, it seems your lo is not getting very many calories in during the day?! how often are you actually feeding at night and how much at each feeding? it is ok to feed lo at night if they NEED it but once it starts affecting daytime feedings, you need to cut them out by slowly weaning them.  if you are in fact feeding at night and need to wean, i can also help and give you some guidance with that if you are interested.  let me know what you think...